Vote!!

Recently, a friend of mine has been making all her Snapchat streaks reminders to vote. I have seen reminders to vote everywhere: Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, and even YouTube. Many boasted that it was quick and easy, and would only take about 5 minutes to complete, so I went online and applied for my absentee ballot.

This will technically be my first time voting, even though I am a sophomore. Last year, the influx of reminders was non-existent, and I failed to remember when voting was until it had already passed. Due to my age, I missed voting in the last Presidential Election by three months, but the worst was that one of my friends celebrated her 18th birthday on November 7th, one day after the election.

Virginia allows voters to register up until Halloween, October 31st. I have my absentee ballot, which allows me to vote from college without the hassle of a 4 hour round trip for 2 seconds at a polling station.

I remember when I was a child, and we actually got out of school for Election Day. My mother would bundle my sister and I up in plenty of layers, and we would go to the nearest polling station, a church, to wait in line before the sun had even come up. Afterwards, I would receive a sticker from the pleasant volunteers, and Mom would take us to Waffle House for breakfast.

This year, I get to take myself to that line, hand in my absentee ballot, and get waffles from the Waffle House down the street before my 11:30 class. Maybe I will re-watch American Horror Story: Cult in celebration.

Speaking of American Horror Story… if you, dear reader, have yet to catch up and watch all seven seasons currently streaming on Netflix and Hulu, you really should get on it. While I did not think I would particularly enjoy the political overtones of Cult, I found I very much liked the season as a whole. Yes, it was political, and yes, there were clowns, but it was an excellent and enjoyable season.

The way they portrayed the local government and how important elections are was fantastic. The whole story was frightening in the fact that there were no supernatural elements. There were no ghosts or vampires behind the scenes to elect government officials, or any Frankenstein-esque babies, but realistic people using their realistic minds to torture people, frighten cult members, and overall elect a maniac into the town’s local government.

While I am not saying this is entirely plausible, there are elements that ring eerily true, like that everyone should go vote or face the consequences of an elected official they do not particularly like. Failure to vote leads to failure to use your voice, and apparently an evil clown cult that will murder anyone who opposes them.

If you have no idea who is running in your local elections, and this is the excuse you are using to stay at home on election day, go to ballotready.org. All you have to do is put in your home address and the site will give you the people running for office, and a cliff notes version of their stances on various subjects like Gun Control and Abortion. It is an excellent starting point for learning about different candidates running for office this November. Go there. Learn. Vote.

The moral of this story is: VOTE, FRIENDS. Use your voice that so many people fought hard to give you! Even though this is not a presidential election, midterms are still important! Go forth and vote!